French Lawmakers Back Per-Gigabyte Internet Traffic Tax Despite Government Opposition – CircleID

France’s National Assembly voted Friday, October 30, to introduce a tax of €0.055 per gigabyte of Internet traffic delivered to French subscribers, advancing a proposal that would make content and application providers pay according to the volume of data they transmit. The amendment to the 2027 budget passed by 11 votes to 10, with 14 abstentions, despite opposition from the government.
The proposed tax would apply to content providers rather than Internet service providers. Under amendment I-1358, introduced by Socialist lawmaker Laurent Lhardit, French ISPs would measure traffic delivered to their subscribers, identify the originating companies, and submit aggregated quarterly reports to tax authorities. The process would be supervised by telecom regulator Arcep and France’s public finance administration.
Content delivery networks (CDNs) would be explicitly covered, with taxable volumes calculated from traffic leaving caching networks toward end users. The amendment prohibits collecting information about the content or destination of individual communications. Annual liabilities would be capped at 15% of a provider’s French revenue or 2% of its worldwide revenue.
Supporters estimate the tax could generate €10 billion annually. Their calculation relies on Arcep estimates of approximately 200 billion gigabytes delivered to French Internet subscribers each year. The amendment identifies Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and Akamai as collectively accounting for roughly half that traffic.
The government disputes the proposal’s economic assumptions. Budget Minister David Amiel warned that smaller content providers, including French companies, could bear a substantial share of the burden. The measure would also impose new traffic-accounting responsibilities on network operators and raise questions about attributing data delivered through shared infrastructure and CDN services.
Open-source developers have also raised objections. VideoLAN, the French nonprofit organization behind the VLC media player, warned that the proposed levy could cost it more than €1 million annually. Its response illustrates how traffic-based taxation could affect organizations distributing large volumes of data without corresponding commercial revenue.
The proposal enters a longstanding European debate over whether large Internet platforms should contribute more directly to network infrastructure costs. Unlike negotiated network usage payments advocated by some telecommunications operators, the French measure would establish a government tax based on traffic volume, potentially affecting content distribution, caching arrangements, and the economics of delivering services to French users.
The amendment is not yet law. It remains subject to the wider budget process, including parliamentary consideration and possible removal from the final legislation. The government’s opposition leaves its survival uncertain, particularly if the budget is adopted through constitutional procedures that allow the government to advance legislation without a final parliamentary vote.
CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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